Government Budget for Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture in Nigeria Increased Following Development of Related Strategy

Plain language title Changes in Federal Government Allocation for Nutrition in the Nigerian Agriculture Sector Budgets From 2009 to 2022 Plain language summary Adequate nutrition requires widespread access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious foods, empowerment of women, and prevention of illnesses. The agriculture sector is responsible for primary food production and, therefore, has important roles to play in improving nutrition. The agriculture sector also has roles in reducing poverty, empowering women and preventing diseases from contaminated food, water, and environment. Achieving these roles requires deliberate actions that must be funded. This research looked at federal government budgets for the agriculture sector in Nigeria from 2009 to 2022 to see if actions needed to improve nutrition were being funded and how much was being allocated to these actions. Specifically, the research tried to see whether more money was being allocated to nutrition actions after the launch of documents that described actions needed to improve nutrition and the cost of those actions. The research found that some of the actions needed to improve nutrition were being funded, and the money being allocated to these actions increased over time. The years immediately following the launch of the key documents had more money allocated for nutrition in the budgets. More money could, however, have been allocated to nutrition if more agricultural activities in the budget included considerations for improving nutrition among vulnerable people. The conclusions from the research are that documentation of actions needed to improve nutrition, and how much these actions cost, helps in mobilizing nutrition resources. Properly distributing nutrition allocations across relevant actions can ensure that money already allocated is able to address priority actions. Nutrition allocations can be further increased by making sure that agricultural activities included in budgets directly consider how to increase access to safe and nutritious foods, empower women, and/or prevent food, water, and environmental contamination. Background: Financial resources that are commensurate with the magnitude of malnutrition problem are requisite for effective interventions to reduce malnutrition. Understanding the amount and nature of sectoral investments in nutrition is important for advocating and mobilizing increased government budgetary allocations and release. Objective: This study assessed trends in Nigeria's agriculture sector nutrition allocations and whether launch of nutrition-sensitive agriculture strategy and/or the COVID-19 pandemic may have affected these nutrition allocations. Methods: Agricultural budgets from 2009 to 2022 of Nigeria's federal government were analyzed. Nutrition-related budget lines were identified using a keyword search and were then classified as nutrition-specific, nutrition-sensitive, or potentially nutrition-sensitive, based on defined criteria. Potentially nutrition-sensitive items were further screened. Budget lines finally included as nutrition allocations directly targeted improvements in nutrition or intermediate outcomes in pathways between agriculture and nutrition. Budget lines were summed, and these nominal values were adjusted for inflation (using the consumer price index for each year) to obtain real values. Results: Nutrition allocations in the agriculture budget increased considerably even after adjusting for inflation and went from 0.13% of agriculture capital budget in 2009 to 2.97% in 2022; while the real value of total government agricultural budget declined. Large budgetary increases coincided with the development/launch of costed strategies with nutrition-sensitive agriculture components. Still, there were some missed opportunities to increase nutrition allocations. Conclusions: Existence of nutrition-sensitive agriculture strategies has facilitated increased nutrition funding and improved the enabling environment. There is need to optimize existing nutrition allocations while advocating for additional funds.